The survivors of the approximately one million Americans who are stricken each year with heart attacks, and those who may be next in line for heart attack, can be helped by proper exercise therapy. Doctors have established that properly prescribed exercises such as walking, exercycling, jogging and swimming contribute significantly to rebuilding the cardiovascular capacity. Following a comprehensive evaluation of the heart patient's maximum exercise stress level, physicians are able to tailor a precise exercise program for the patient consistent with the test data. For maximum effectiveness, and to minimize risk to the patient, the exercise program must be accurately monitored, usually by the patient himself, and a record made of his pulse rate at prescribed times during the exercise program. For the pulse rate reading to be meaningful, it is necessary to maintain uniform, dependable and accurately timed conditions under which the pulse rate is observed and recorded, and in order that the timing of the exercise periods and recording of the pulse rate not interfere with the exercise being performed, the patient should not have to keep his eye on a watch or other timepiece to determine the "start" and "stop" of the exercise periods, nor observe the sweep second hand of a watch while reading his pulse in order to get an accurate pulse rate count. Since a typical exercise program may have a total duration of about forty minutes consisting of a "warm-up period" of ten minutes, a "heart stress" period divided into five "exercise" periods alternating with a like number of "rest" periods during a portion of each of which the pulse rate is observed, and a "cool down" period, the above-outlined method of monitoring the program would be especially cumbersome.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved device for monitoring and instructing a patient to perform a prescribed exercise program, such as a cardiovascular stress exercise program.